UPDATE: I must confess to not having read the statement very carefully, but what Geoffrey Manne says here about the actual meaning of the statement seems plausible. It is not actually a broadside against tenure.

AND ANOTHER: I didn't read Manne that carefully either (my day job keeps me busy with real work), but now I have. Here's what I think: (1) obviously the right-wing has been waging a campaign against tenure, but that's neither here nor there in this instance; (2) what the Deans are objecting to is the ABA's attempt to force tenure privileges to be extended to all those who teach, in various capacities (academic, clinical, legal writing), in law schools. I am fairly confident the Deans aren't hoping to abolish tenure for academic faculty; I'm also fairly confident they are worried about the consequences of having to create tenure-stream lines for a wide array of individuals who teach in law schools. That's a debatable topic, to be sure, but this document is not a general broadside against tenure.